How to Work at Heights Safely

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Whether you work at heights every day or only once in a while, your safety priority during these periods is of critical importance. It is a mistake to turn a routine task into a serious injury or fatality. You must be prepared to protect your employees whenever they are at risk of falling.

What is working at Height?

Working at height refers to any work where a person could potentially fall and harm himself or herself. It could be from the ladder, the edge of the roof, through the opening of the floor, even a loading dock can work in height. OSHA is required in the general industry to protect the fall from any change in height of 4 feet or more. Here are ten safety tips to help reduce the risk of working at heights.

How to Work From Heights Safely

Using the Ladders properly

Don’t just say you have a ladder at home, you know what you’re doing. You know what they’re saying about believing that? It’s going to make people hurt. Ladders are the source of many industrial and occupational accidents precisely because we take their use for granted. The ladders are well known. You use them to hang your Christmas lights, to paint a living room, to adjust the irritating bulb hard to reach, and to clean your gutters. We use them so much that we need to know what we’re doing because we’ve never been hurt before, don’t we? The ladders are very risky. When misused, they are very dangerous. Evaluate whether or not they are the right option for the mission before using the ladder. Then make sure the workers are qualified to use the ladder properly. This isn’t as straightforward as you would imagine. There are three key principles to remember for proper handling of ladders.

Have a 3 ft. ladder extension past the floor you’re ascending to. Have a 4:1 increase and run ratio. The ladder rises every four feet high and positions the base of the ladder one foot away from the frame. Ensure that you have three points of contact with the ladder at all times.

Two legs, one arm. Two hands, one leg, two hands. If you think about it, that means you’re not taking anything like a bucket up or down a ladder. That would cause you to violate the three-point rule. Find another way, like pulling it up a rope after transfer or carrying small objects in a belt or pocket.

Do these stuff, and you’re going to have a fantastic start to a stable ladder expansion experience.

As for the step-ladder, you would think it makes sense to use it correctly. You’d be shocked how many people misinterpret the sticker that says, “Don’t stand on this step or above” that means you can stand on that step! Provide the staff with adequate preparation, even though it can sound like common sense.

For fixed ladders over 24′ long, you would want to insure that your employees use a safety ladder system that involves a lanyard, a harness and a continuous vertical lifeline (cable or rigid rail) that extends the height of the ladders. Cages are no longer an acceptable form of defence against falls. And that’s the climb. Don’t skip the transition to the top. Make sure that the safety gate of the ladder and the first fall defence are secured for a safe, stable experience.

Ensure good use of elevators

There are several ways that something could go wrong while operating a lift, so I’m not going to get into the actual operation here. However, we do need to discuss the safety of falls concerning lifts. One point that is sometimes ignored is that everyone in a boom lift, at any time or height, must be properly tied off.

“Properly tied-off” not only means that they need to be fixed to an engineered lift anchor point, but it means that they cannot wrap their lanyard around the rails and that they need a lanyard that supports them at the height at which they are working (see fall distance above). Things are a bit different with scissor lifts. While the site you are working on or the owner of the facility/project can require you to connect to a scissor lift, there is no regulatory obligation to do so. However, as soon as you fail to close your gate or lock your chain, you are no longer secured by rails and are now in a breach of fall security. It’s just that easy. Often, keep your feet firmly on the platform. They’re both.

Know When and What kind of fall safety is needed

Three variables need to be addressed when and what form of fall protection OSHA requires: frequency, length, and place of work. When you think about it, if you’re always close to a fall hazard, you’re more at risk than someone who doesn’t have access to the area as often. OSHA is now using two words that will help you assess the frequency and length of your work.

• Infrequent: jobs done once a month or less.
• Temporary: simple, short-term tasks that take 2 hours or less to complete.
• Place of work: After you have determined the frequency and length of work, you will need to decide the location of work in the vicinity of the hazard. The chart below will help you select the type of fall safety depending on the distance from the fall threat.

Using the necessary equipment to operate at heights (Scaffold vs Lift vs Ladder)

Much as harnesses are not one-size-fits-all, neither are fall safety solutions. In certain cases, the scaffold would be your only solution to function at heights. This may be for painting a house or washing downstairs windows. If that is the case, you will probably be able to stock the scaffold with railings, making your fall defence much easier to address. Other times, the scaffolding will be unfeasible, and you’ll find yourself on the elevator. Depending on the type of lift, you can or may not have to wear a belt and a lanyard (such as when using a scissor lift). Other times, you will be using a ladder, at which stage the criteria for fall safety will become more complicated. We’re going to talk about it further down. Portable, sturdy scaffolding may replace ladder work, such as the Easi-Dec system.

In the end, it’s necessary to consider your situation and what kind of elevation system you need, whether it’s a ladder, a scaffold, a lift, or some other solution.

Practice, Practice, Practice

It has been stated in the numerous paragraphs above, but it cannot be emphasised sufficiently. If you want your staff to operate safely at high altitudes, they must be properly equipped. Period. Period. Not only is training required by statute, but there is also so much space for error and misunderstanding when it comes to someone attempting to defend themselves in height without proper experience. Falls is the leading killer in construction year after year. But it’s not just about construction. Many people in various other sectors are also dying from fall injuries. Arm the workers with the skills that they need to keep themselves safe. Safe work at heights requires adequate planning, concentration and safety precautions to be placed in place. Taking shortcuts and being complacent can lead to serious injury or fatal accidents.